House Dems back fight on voter rules

House Democratic leaders are backing a lawsuit that fights efforts in two states to add stricter requirements to federal voter registration forms.

The case, Kris W. Kobach et al. v. United States Election Assistance Commission, centers on a request from Kansas and Arizona to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to the federal voter registration form that matches their state laws.

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The House Democrats, led by Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, argue in an amicus brief released on Wednesday that providing that proof would limit voting rights.

“Laws are already in place to deter non-citizens from registering to vote and to punish those that violate that law. Additional burdens are an outrageous and insidious way to disfranchise eligible voters by throwing arbitrary obstacles in their way. It’s nothing more than voter suppression,” Brady said in a statement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals of the Tenth Circuit is expected to hear the case in the coming months.

Expanding the ability for voters to register without tougher proof-of-citizenship requirements has become an election-year focus for Democrats since the Supreme Court struck down key passages in the Voting Rights Act last year.

“For much of our nation’s history, state law was used to diminish or deny qualified citizens the right to vote. The Constitution was amended to correct that wrong and to empower Congress to take appropriate steps to ensure that history does not repeat itself….Congress’s authority to override state law in matters of election procedures for federal elections is beyond doubt,” the signers wrote in the brief.